As the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, God has the right to require perfect obedience and faithful service from all of us without in the least obligating Himself. We owe Him that obedience and service. If we were to perfectly obey every command God has given and faithfully perform every duty- which, of course, we never do – we still could only say, “I have merely done my duty.”

Through the inspired pen of the apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit again asserts God’s freedom from obligation to anyone: “Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” (Romans 11:35). This assertion wasn’t made in a vacuum. Paul had been dealing with the difficult question of the Jews’ future in the face of God’s apparent spurning of them in favor of the Gentiles. Regardless of how we understand that future, the principle stated by the Holy Spirit through Paul is crystal clear: God doesn’t owe anyone anything.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation – 2 Corinthians 5:18

This is a most amazing passage of Scripture. Having objectively secured reconciliation for us, Christ now appeals to us through His gospel messengers to “be reconciled to God” – to receive His work of reconciliation. We ourselves should have been on our faces before God, imploring Him to be reconciled to us. Instead, we see God reconciling us to Himself through the death of His Son, then appealing to us to receive that reconciliation. What pure grace and mercy on God’s part!

To add to our amazement, we know that, left to ourselves, we would never even want to be reconciled to God. According to Paul, we were so blinded by Satan that we could not even see the light of the gospel and receive it (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore God sends His Holy Spirit to open our hearts to understand and receive the message of reconciliation (Acts 16:14). 0, what wondrous love, what matchless grace, that God would do everything necessary to reconcile us to Himself!